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Written Question
Private Education: VAT
Wednesday 22nd January 2025

Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of VAT changes on (a) private schools and (b) demand on the state sector in North Dorset constituency.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department has made no separate estimate of the number of pupils in North Dorset specifically who will leave the independent school system as a result of VAT impact on school fees.

Across the UK as a whole, including North Dorset, the government predicts, in the long-term steady state, there will be 37,000 fewer pupils in the private sector in the UK as a result of the removal of the VAT exemption applied to school fees. This represents around 6% of the current private school population.

Of the 37,000 pupil reduction in the private sector, the government estimates an increase of 35,000 pupils in the state sector in the steady state following the VAT policy taking effect, with the other 2,000 consisting of international pupils who do not move into the UK state system, and domestic pupils moving into homeschooling. This state sector increase represents less than 0.5% of total UK state school pupils, of which there are over 9 million. This movement is expected to take place over several years.

The impact on individual local authorities will interact with other pressures and vary. Every year lots of pupils move between schools, including between the private and state-funded sectors.

Local authorities routinely support parents who need a state-funded school place, including where private schools have closed. Where local authorities are experiencing difficulties in ensuring there are enough school places for children that need them, the department will offer support and advice.

The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools.

Dorset Council has been allocated just below £1.5 million to support the provision of new mainstream school places needed over the current and next two academic years, up to and including the academic year starting in September 2026.


Written Question
Dedicated Schools Grant
Friday 24th January 2020

Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his timescale is for his Department's response to the Dedicated Schools Grant consultation.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The consultation on clarifying the specific grant and ring-fenced status of the Dedicated Schools Grant concluded on 15 November. The Department is currently considering the responses received, and the Department’s response to the consultation will be published in due course.


Written Question
Overseas Students
Friday 15th December 2017

Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the net contribution foreign students studying in the UK made to the economy in each of the last three years.

Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone

The table below shows the estimated contribution international students have made to the UK economy, in tuition fees and living expenditure, for the last three years of available data. The estimates for 2015 will be published in early 2018 and the estimates for 2016 will be published in Autumn 2018.

International student’s1 contribution to the UK economy in tuition fees and living expenditure, 2012 to 2014, current prices

2012

£13.2 billion

2013

£13.4 billion

2014

£14 billion

1 This estimate includes Higher Education, Further Education, Independent Schools and English Language Training students.

[Source: Department for Education Research Report, July 2017, UK revenue from education related exports and transnational education activity 2010-2014.]